LETTERS: Democrats dodge responsibility for votes
To the editor:
As millions of health insurance policies are being canceled, many Democrats have said it’s actually a good thing because the plans were substandard. Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford parroted other Democratic talking points by calling the plans “predatory” (Saturday Review-Journal). All of these plans were approved by state insurance commissions. If the insurance commissioners were approving substandard and predatory policies, then why isn’t there a national outcry? Why aren’t there calls for them to be brought up on charges for misleading or defrauding consumers?
Insurance companies propose plans, but commissions approve them. If there are bad plans, it’s the commissioners’ responsibility to reject them.
Democrats who voted for the Affordable Care Act knew back in 2010 that people would lose their coverage. They thought no one would notice. But people are being hurt, and they’re angry. Instead of being honest, the politicians are circling their wagons, creating excuses and trying to avoid responsibility for their votes. They must think they’re as good at misdirection Houdini. Will we really be fooled again?
PHILIP COHEN
LAS VEGAS
Adjusting orthodoxy
To the editor:
Major media credit New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s success to his moderate views on behalf of his constituents and his rejection of a straight Republican orthodoxy. By the same logic, it would stand to reason that if President Barack Obama would reject his straight Democratic orthodoxy and pursue a moderate approach to governing, his popularity would improve.
TOM HOOVER
LAS VEGAS
Celebrating Thanksgiving
To the editor:
Reading your Nov. 13 front-page article, “Holiday shopping start creeps further into Thanksgiving,” really saddened me. During the Thanksgiving season, I always shared with my students at school the story of how Thanksgiving came to be. Few people know that President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 (during the Civil War) declared the last Thursday in November a “day of thanks” in saying, “I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
Sadly, Thanksgiving is becoming less about family and more about shopping. Why can’t stores just be closed on Thanksgiving so that it can be a day to spend with family, friends and people we love?
VICKI VAN BEVEREN
HENDERSON
Ageless poetry
To the editor:
As a retired professor, poet and new Las Vegas resident, I was pleased to see John L. Smith’s commentary (“President’s widow moved by poem,” Sunday Review-Journal) on a historical poem that made an imprint for the ages. For all ages, folks of all political stripes, and even a grieving widow — a first lady.
For decades, I have held that the very best poetry is a re-sounding of experience. That the poem, in its spare, compressed language and deep feeling, can lock up a high or low moment, a flash of joy or despair, for eternity. So too, can it seal the passing of a person forever, above all a president.
In the late 1980s, I wrote a poem to commemorate the brave souls lost on the space shuttle Challenger. Subsequently, the writing became part of the NASA collection. So too, has Ron Delpit written a poem for the ages, to keep President John F. Kennedy ageless for all time.
Ezra Pound called the poet the “antennae of the race.” Indeed, a scribe is worthy of recording the best and worst of us. Thank you, Mr. Smith, for your excellent writing.
LEE MALLORY
LAS VEGAS
JFK at the Sands
To the editor:
Coming up on the 50-year anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, I found the information in Norm Clarke’s column to be very offensive (“Mob insider recalls JFK’s 1960 visit to Sands,” Sunday Review-Journal). Did Ed Walters think revealing that information of Mr. Kennedy’s trip to Las Vegas in 1960 would make him a big man? To me, it makes him the common mob snitch.
Americans loved President Kennedy, and to this day, many are still saddened by that terrible day 50 years ago. Trust me Mr. Walters, the country would have been far better off if he had lived. Telling dirty little stories of him now is classless. Mr. Clarke, I’m disappointed in you, too.
JOAN DODDS
LAS VEGAS
No horse sense
To the editor:
Well, another year and nothing in the Review-Journal (or on local TV) about the Las Vegas National Hunter Jumper Horse Show at South Point.
Beautiful horses, spills and chills, great riders — a gold medal Olympian, lots of local riders and riders from other countries — and it’s free. It was advertised, but there was no coverage in the Review-Journal. Shame on you. Our local riders put in incredible effort to ride the way they do. It wouldn’t hurt for the newspaper to recognize them.
RAYMOND J. ZWIERZYCKI
LAS VEGAS
